Check it out!

It is that time of year once again. The mad dash to the school year finish line. In the midst of all the madness, I created a new Pinterest board titled Let's Teach Reading! Click here to check it out.

Have a happy Monday!

P.S. I got the above photo from the best free photo resource I have yet found online. 
It is called Morgue File.  

Hello!

Just a brief pop in to say hello and give you a peek at a some of the hall art our Kindergartners did for Right to Read week. As the end of the year approaches (only 6 more weeks to go!), I find myself extra busy. Plus, now that the weather is finally turning warm, I am enjoying the opportunity to be outdoors more. 

These Truffula trees make me smile every time I walk by. We had so much fun building this giant graph! Each of the students wrote their name on a balloon, then stuck it above the type of habitat they would most like to visit. I was surprised that more students did not pick the beach. Always so interesting to see how young minds work. One little tyke actually said he did not want to go to the beach because he had been there before. I found that insightful since some of the other students were quite oppositely picking what was most familiar to them. Anyway, enough of my musings for today. The grill is begging me for some chicken....

Happy Tuesday!

Common Core Quick Reference

The introduction of the Common Core has brought with it a whole host of new acronyms to mix in with our all ready full "alphabet soup" of educational lingo. Therefore, I was grateful to find this handy quick reference guide for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. It not only outlines the key acronyms, but also defines many commonly used terms such as text complexity and close reading. I found the list of several useful web links helpful as well.

Happy Friday!

Close Reading

Adopting the Common Core this year has led me to delve into the world of Close Reading to discover what it is, what it does, and what resources I can use in my classroom right now in a nutshell. 

What it is:

an in-depth rereading and analysis of a  book, poem, or article

What it does:

challenges the reader to study author's purpose and intent in writing the passage to the point of considering language, syntax, & layout to the tiniest nuance of text

Resources:

I got a kick out of this student made video which gives
a nice overview of the topic.

By far my favorite resource has come from the St. Joseph School District website which contains PDFs and Word documents with sample lesson plans, forms and other high-quality instructional material - all for free! I am looking forward to trying the Eric Carle lesson plan with my students. 

I additionally found the information in these articles helpful:

What is Close Reading?

Close Reading of a Literary Passage

Happy Wednesday!

Nonesense Word Helper

We use the DIBELS assessment system in our school district and one of the main components of this assessment piece is Nonsense Word Fluency. This is a measure commonly used to assess student progress with early phonemic sound recognition, blending, and word reading. Many of my students struggle greatly with this skill set, so I was thrilled when I found a FREE downloadable game centered around this difficult (and often less than thrilling) reading skill. Since using this game from seller The Polka Dot Patch, my kids are eager to practice their Nonsense Word Fluency. Click on the picture above for a link to this seller's store on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. Hope your students enjoy it as much as mine.

Have a blessed holiday weekend!